chapter 6 textbook Flashcards
Do tandem runs in ants involve teaching?
marked pairs of ants with colored dots; one knew the food location and one didn’t; the one that didn’t know followed the leader, and that slowed the leader down; he got to the food faster without the other ant following; the naive ants got to the food faster with the leader rather than foraging alone. Cultural transmission of information, including that transmitted through teaching, occurs in other species, even species of ants.
cultural transmission
typically defined as the transfer of information from individual to individual through social learning or teaching—both within and between generations of animals
ex: Imo washing the sand off her wheat and everyone around her started doing it too Also, stone play (playing with stones after eating) was only transmitted to younger monkeys
social learning
the process of learning
by watching others. ex: imo the monkey washing sweet potatoes before eating; her friends and family started doing this too via cultural transmission
What does stone play facilitate?
The development of perceptual
and cognitive skills, adults engaging in this may slow down the deterioration of cognitive processes
local enhancement
The ACTION of a model draws attention to some aspect of the enviornment. Individuals learn from others, not so much by doing what they observer, as by being drawn to a particular area because
another individual. A model simply
draws attention to some aspect of the environment by the action it
undertakes there. Once the observer is drawn to the area, the observer may learn on its own, via individual learning. It facilitates foraging because some individuals are drawn to good foraging areas just because other birds are foraging there.
social facilitation
The mere presence of a model, regardless of what it does, is
thought to facilitate learning on the part of an observer
describe social facilitation and local enhancement in the capuchin
social facilitation (treatment 2: mere presence of others) and local
enhancement (treatment 3: presence of others that are eating).
there was local enhancement (capuchin drawn to food when it saw other capuchins eating food) but no social facilitation
copy
When animals copy one another, an observer repeats what it has seen
a model do. Typically, the copier is then rewarded for whatever
behavior it has copied.
what is the difference between copying and imitation?
Copying differs from imitation in that what is copied need not be novel and need not involve learning some new topographical action—an individual can copy the action of another, even if it already knows how to do what the model is doing, and even if it does not involve learning some new spatial orientation to do what the model does
mate choice copying
A female copies the choices of those around her. ex: guppies
tradition
If a new behavior emerges and then becomes common within a group as a result of social learning, ex: meercats
does learning stop tradition?
yes individual learning does
teaching
A teacher must provide an immediate benefit to students but not to himself or herself; “students” must be naive to what is being taught; and a teacher must impart some new information to students faster than they would otherwise receive it. ex: meercats teaching their pups to catch prey
what relationship promotes the most teaching?
parent and offspring
vertical transmission
occurs when information is transmitted across generations from parent(s) to offspring via teaching or social learning
oblique transmission
Refers to the transfer of information across generations, but not via parent/offspring interactions. young animals get information from adults that are not their parents
horizontal transmission
involves transmission between
peers—same-aged individuals—and occurs not only in adults but
young individuals as well
